Parasyte upgrades its production for action spectacle, but the human element still rings hollow.
What They Say:
They arrived in silence and darkness, descending from the skies with a hunger for human flesh. Parasites – alien creatures who must invade and take control of a human host to survive – have come to Earth. No one knows their secret except high school student, Shinichi Izumi, who’s right hand has been invaded by an alien parasite. Shinichi and Migi, the parasite in his hand, begrudgingly form a friendship and find themselves caught in the middle of a war between humans and parasites.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This episode serves as our introduction to Miki, a Parasyte that seemingly contains two other Parasytes in his body. In the manga, we’d already met him during the conversation with Tamura that the anime decided to cut out. Only here, after Miki approaches Shinichi, do we learn that his trademark is trying to ape human emotion, without really understanding the motivation behind that emotion. Skilled at battle and action, while not really understanding the emotion that goes into expression? Is there any more perfect metaphor for the Parasyte adaptation at this point?
This episode itself is kind of an uneasy hybrid between two types of storytelling, one where the anime delivers perhaps better than the manga, and the other that falls flat. The first story is the showdown between Miki and Shinichi, who, noticing the clumsiness of his powerful Parasyte foe, decides to run into the forest to throw him off guard. The battle sequence is competently done, if there are no really standout animation moments.
Shinichi appears to beat his foe by decapitating him, only to discover that in the body is also Goto, and four other Parasytes. Miki, whose name means three trees, can only control three of the component Parasytes, where as Goto, whose name means five, can control all five in perfect harmony. Goto soon takes over and Shinichi finds a foe he is hopelessly outmatched against. He flees, and the only thing that saves his life is Migi hijacking a truck and bashing Goto into the side of another. This is the Parasyte anime at its most impressive, though admittedly its most shallow and shounenesque.
Mixed in with the action is the story that Kuramori’s family, who we never really go to even meet in the anime, was murdered by Parasytes. Since we don’t know them, we can’t really care, and it feels like a bit of a gimmick to make Kuramori do what the story requires of him. He goes to the police and turns over the name of Tamura Ryoko, though not before escaping to have his own revenge. Shinichi catches a bit of the tragic Kuramori story on a TV broadcast, and calls his father to have him leave the house, let he get caught up in the murders as well. The manga version of this phonecall was raw and heartfelt, and the anime sanitizes it far too much. There’s no panic in either Shinichi’s voice or face.
To complete the disappointments in characterization, the Parasytes finally turn in Tamura themselves, for feeling she sympathizes far too much with humans. Here it feels just too abrupt. Tamura feels so under-developed compared to where she was in the manga at this point, we don’t feel the conflict in her dual natures as mother and parasite at all. The lack of emotional impact makes the collision course between all of these characters in the next few episodes potentially underwhelming. It’s a disappointing spot to be at.
In Summary:
So much of the problems with the storytelling in this second half comes down to not spending enough time with developing characters, making me wonder why the series couldn’t have been given a full 26 episodes, rather than 24, to handle all of its subplots? But even then, there are signs that the staff behind the series don’t understand why everything worked the way it did, and more time might have just led to additional poor decisions being made. I have some faith that the final arcs, which rely more on action than emotion, might still deliver, but seeing a favorite character of mine go out like this is depressing.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony VAIO 20″
